1/72 Type IXc U-Boat Build (U505 Early) Revell 05114

[AndyPG]

Thanks Tom.

 

One of the jobs I really enjoy is DIY hand rails (railings)

The supplied railings fit perfectly but they are nearly twice as thick as they should be at this scale.

Most of them are around 1mm in diameter but remaking them using 0.6mm and 0.5mm brass and copper wire gives them a super fine look that I really like.

I bought the brass wire but I salvage the copper wire from various electrical cables.

All soldering is done with a small Weller soldering iron with a 2mm tip.

I bend the railing around wooden forms which I make to match the original railing shape and angles.

All legs/ends are left over long at this stage.

Pics below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Addling the extra little top rail was very fiddly.

This was to restrict the Flak gun movement and prevent the gunners from being able to shoot the stern off the sub.

Two little drilled lugs also soldered in place for the rigging.

 

 

Below is the Flak gun movement restrictor which protects the conning tower.

 

 

 

 

Back on to some plastic work next.

Cheers for now.

[uncarina]

Andy,

 

That is absolutely top level work! Your have some real skills with that soldering iron, and those railings will really make a difference.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[AndyPG]

Cheers Tom.

 

On to replacing those panel lines and rivets.

 

While sanding the dodgy aft section hull join line, I lost some of the panel lines and a couple of hundred rivets.

I'd already scaled down said lines and rivets so they only needed subtly re-creating.

I reformed the panel lines with filler between strips of masking tape.

The rivets were created with tiny dabs of PVA glue applied with the point of a nail.

The pics below tell the story.

 

 

^ Masking tape in place.

 

 

^ Filler applied.

 

 

^ Sand it down and remove the masking tape. Happy with.

 

Onto the rivets.

 

 

^ The little dabs of PVA replicate the other scaled down rivets pretty well.

Nail used and a blob of PVA on a piece of masking tape close to hand .

 

I'm getting close to permanently fixing the decks in place so i need to fit the M4 nuts that will receive the display mounting screws.

I simply epoxy the nuts in place along with a small piece of plywood for stability.

 

 

 

More soon.

 

Andy.

[robgizlu]

Absolutely marvellous work on that soldering !!!!

And the rivets are superb - mighty fine modelling skills on show here

Rob

[longshanks]

Great techniques on display here ...

 

Kev

[kpnuts]

Painstaking work but it looks great, well worth all that effort.

[AndyPG]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Really appreciated.

 

Andy.

[lars_opland]

Hi Andy,

 

I like this thread; those big Revell sub kits continue to tempt me though they aren't my usual thing, & your work on the rails is awesome. One question about that: Do you plan to add some of the wider areas as molded on the kit rails? IIRC, these can be seen in U-boat photos & appear to be foot & elbow rests for lookouts or some-such. I love what you've done with the flood port details!

 

That's the thing about bigger scales. The "detail threshold" gets smaller as the model gets bigger, so more things need to be added to avoid an unfinished look. Around 1:32 or 1:24, hex bolts need to be hex bolts & screw heads start wanting slots....

 

Keep up the good work & ALWAYS have fun!

 

Cheers, -Lars

[AndyPG]

4 hours ago, lars_opland said:

Do you plan to add some of the wider areas as molded on the kit rails? IIRC, these can be seen in U-boat photos & appear to be foot & elbow rests for lookouts or some-such.

Hi Lars,

Thanks for the comments.

You're absolutely right, they are seats and on my U96 build, I snipped them from the plastic railings, dressed them up and stuck them to my DIY wire railings. Picture below.

I could do the same with this build but the supplied seats are way too thick.

I could try thinning them but will probably remake them from 0.5mm polystyrene sheet.

In any case, they certainly need to be fitted.

Andy.

 

 

[AndyPG]

On to the deck gun.

The Type IX U-Boats were mostly fitted with a 105mm deck gun.

It dwarfs the 88mm deck gun fitted to the Type VII U-Boats but nearly all deck guns were removed in the latter years of WW2.

This was because it caused considerable drag when submerged, and, popping up to the surface to finish stricken ships off wasn't possible once U-Boat hunting technology was perfected.

 

After seeing what was available, in aftermarket form, I had to have one regardless of whether it was appropriate to my build.

I ordered it from RC Subs along with the rest of the photo etch parts.

 

It's a very nice looking addition to the Type IX as the deck section forward of the conning tower is a little bare without it.

 

The gun photo etch sheet is perfectly produced but if I'm honest, the brass barrel had quite a few turning marks in it and some of the plastic parts were 3D printed instead of the resin I was expecting.

The 3D printed parts need lots of filling and sanding to get rid of all the little print ridges which would otherwise be very noticeable.

It has to be filled as the 3D print material is very "Nylon like" and doesn't sand well.

The form of some of the PE parts don't quite replicate the real gun's anatomy as well as the Eduard version but it still looks very impressive.

If I did want to replace it, with a better version at a later date, it would be easily removed so......onward.

Here's some pictures of the completed gun.

 

Andy.

 

 

 

 

[AndyPG]

I added the detail to the periscope.

The brass oval part is from the PE set.

The spiral affair around the pole is scratch built from 0.2mm copper wire.

This represents a vortex breaking device which reduced vibration while operating at periscope depth.

 

 

Incidentally, here's a picture of my decals from AMP.

They represent U505's early emblems.

Immaculate quality.

 

 

[uncarina]

I love how this is taking shape! Great progress.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Kris B]

It is coming nicely. 

[AndyPG]

I'm moving rapidly towards firing up the airbrush so I need to update you on the decking.

 

I purchased the full PE decking sets on the strength of the pictures on the rcsubs.cz website.

The pictures show all the PE parts (including the decking) in bare unpainted brass and look amazing.

 

The quality of the received PE deck parts is superb but they are of coarse extremely flimsy being only 0.2mm thick brass sheet.

The supplied instructions show how to construct some basic support bars and strips but in reality I would need to go much further and build a rather complex sub-frame if the PE deck were to be supported fully to my liking.

 

I set about cutting out the numerous PE hatches and bits and bobs then meticulously sticking them to the PE deck.

It began to dawn on me that I was basically producing a near replica of the original supplied Revell decking with little gain in fineness or detail.

 

I hit the newly built PE deck, and the Revell supplied deck, with some primer so I could compare.

I was a little disappointed to find that there was literally no discernible difference.

 

Now don't get me wrong, the rcsubs PE decking is superb but unfortunately the plastic Revell supplied items are absolutely stunning and fit immaculately.

For this reason, I will be sticking with the original Revell deck and save myself a lot of frustrating work.

I have used some of the small PE deck detail but only where I perceive a significant gain in appearance.

 

Below are two comparison pictures so you can judge for yourselves.

You should be able to work out that the Revell deck is in the foreground on the first picture and in the background in the second picture.

 

Please do let me know your opinions.

 

Andy.

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by AndyPG

[uncarina]

Andy,

 

I see what you mean! Thanks for sharing this. If you want hatches open in my opinion the photoetch deck would be the way to go, but not otherwise  based on your pics.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[bobsyouruncle]

Hi Andy, what a fantastic job you've done on this beauty so far.

I love what you've done here. It was great and a little reassuring to see to see that you decided to go the same way regarding the hull rivets and the baffles in the side vents.

I really love the railings and the way you made that shaping block too.

You said some time ago that you'd be overtaking me and you certainly did.

My boat's in 'drydock' at the moment but it will return and your boat's certainly inspired me.

I was finding that I was having to make a great deal of alterations to replicate the features of my boat (having gone away from the U505 style boat) and I had to break from it when I had to do some paintings last year 

(they're in the aviation art section) and then I went to Telford and saw a very reasonably priced Typhoon (and I just couldn't resist starting a kit that I didn't have to make too many departures from the instructions to build) so I'm bashing that at the moment (see in the aircraft WIPs).

Fantastic work once again Andy. 

I love your cases too and will have to have a go at one of those myself, I think. Really sets it off.

 

Looking forward to seeing her finished. Superb job.

Cheers Bob.

[AndyPG]

Thanks for the comments Guys.

 

Lovely paintings Bob.

I can see your heart's with aircraft.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for the sub leaving the dry dock.

 

Andy.

[AndyPG]

So, I'm just about ready for painting.

I use an airbrush in my garage but the weather is so cold, I can't start it in case it affects the results.

Single figure temperatures aren't great for spraying so I'll have to occupy myself with some minor tasks while I wait.

 

I decided to complete and dry-fit the conning tower railings.

The Revell method of attaching railings is quite different from the correct way.

The difference is quite noticeable so I sanded off the lugs around the conning tower decks and prepared the new wire railings for final fitting which I prefer to do after painting.

 

Picture sequence below.

 

 

 

Revell lugs still in place ^

 

 

Sanded off and filled ^

 

 

Holes drilled and railings fitted per original ^

 

 

May as well prepare and dry-fit the main deck handrails too V

 

 

I'll need to make 20+ little triangle supports to complete the job.

1st one fitted below centre pic.

 

 

Painting next! hopefully this weekend.

 

Andy.

[uncarina]

Very meticulous work!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[mick]

excellent work

[AndyPG]

Thanks guys.

 

I managed to get some primer on the hull, decks and sub assemblies this weekend but first I has to glue the diving vane support arms on.

I'd left this job until last as they stick out a lot and are easily damaged.

The rear ones fit perfectly but the front ones fit so badly, they look like they're from another kit.

 

 

As you can see, the part is substantially thinner that the flaring on the hull.

No worries though, a little filler and it will fade away.

 

 

 

Here's the pic of everything in primer.

 

 

Next, pre-shading.

I also need to decide on my choice of colour scheme.

I generally mix my own from the Vallejo Model Air range.

Likely a very light grey for the upper hull and darker grey for the lower.

The deck will be a very dark grey.

 

Cheers for now.

Andy.

Edited March 26, 2018 by AndyPG

[robgizlu]

Splendid, splendid work - it's a joy to read - love how you'v done the railings.  See what you mean by the quality of the Revell deck.

Looking forward to the paint job

Rob

[Little Timmy]

I have built 16 U-boat's, with another about to be on the bench.... and I "Thought" I knew what I was doing.

After looking at your work, I realize that "I have been playing with stick's and rock's " !

Before I crawl back into my primative stone age cave, I will say, Nice job so far !

Patiently waiting for your next update.

( I  go now .... must try make fire ... Ug ...  ... OW !! ...)

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

2 hours ago, Little Timmy said:

I have built 16 U-boat's, with another about to be on the bench.... and I "Thought" I knew what I was doing.

After looking at your work, I realize that "I have been playing with stick's and rock's " !

Before I crawl back into my primative stone age cave, I will say, Nice job so far !

Patiently waiting for your next update.

( I  go now .... must try make fire ... Ug ...  ... OW !! ...)

Im sure your U-boats are good to don't knock yourself. 😉 However that last line made me laugh. 

[AndyPG]

13 hours ago, Little Timmy said:

After looking at your work, I realize that "I have been playing with stick's and rock's " !

Aw, thanks Little Timmy. That's a huge compliment. And modest I suspect as that Type VII Mine Layer looks like quality.

Is it posted in "Ready for Inspection"?

Did a quick search but couldn't see it. Would like to see more.

 

On 3/26/2018 at 11:12 PM, robgizlu said:

Splendid, splendid work - it's a joy to read - love how you'v done the railings.  See what you mean by the quality of the Revell deck.

Looking forward to the paint job

Rob

Thanks Rob.

Still too cold to paint in my garage but in the mean time I'll post some more pre-paint titivation.

 

Andy.